In
1923, the British divided the "Palestine"
portion of the Ottoman
Empire into two administrative
districts. Jews would be permitted only
west of the Jordan river. In effect, the
British had "chopped off" 75% of the
originally proposed Jewish Palestinian
homeland to form an Arab Palestinian nation called Trans-Jordan
(meaning "across the Jordan River"). This
territory east of the Jordan River was given
to Emir Abdullah (from Hejaz, now Saudi
Arabia) who was not even an
Arab-"Palestinian!" This portion of Palestine
was renamed Trans-Jordan. Trans-Jordan would
again be renamed "Jordan" in 1946. In other
words, the eastern 3/4 of Palestine would be
renamed TWICE, in effect, erasing all
connection to the name "Palestine!" However,
the bottom line is that the Palestinian Arabs
had THEIR "Arab Palestinian" homeland. The
remaining 25% of Palestine (now WEST
of the Jordan River) was to be the Jewish Palestinianhomeland. However, sharing was
not part of the Arab psychological makeup then
nor now.

Encouraged and incited by growing
Arab nationalism throughout the Middle East,
the Arabs of that small remaining Palestinian
territory west of the Jordan River launched
never-ending murderous attacks upon the Jewish
Palestinians in an effort to drive them out.
Most terrifying were the Hebron massacres of
1929 and later during the 1936-39 "Arab
Revolt." The British at first tried to
maintain order but soon (due to the large oil
deposits being discovered throughout the Arab
Middle East) turned a blind eye. It became
painfully clear to the Palestinian Jews that
they must fight the Arabs AND drive out the
British.

On
May 14, 1948 the "Palestinian Jews" finally
declared their own State of Israel and
became "Israelis." On the next day,
seven neighboring Arab armies...Egypt, Jordan,
Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and
Yemen... invaded Israel. Most of the Arabs
living within the boundaries of the newly
declared "ISRAEL" were encouraged to leave by
the invading Arab armies to facilitate the
slaughter of the Jews and were promised to be
given all Jewish property after the victorious
Arab armies won the war. The truth is that 70%
of the Arab Palestinians who left in 1948 –
perhaps 300,000 to 400,000 of them – never saw
an Israeli soldier! They did not flee because
they feared Jewish thugs, but because of a
rational and reasonable calculus: the Jews
will be exterminated; we will get out of the
way while that messy and dangerous business
goes forward, and we will return afterwards to
reclaim our homes, and to inherit those nice
Jewish properties as well. They guessed wrong;
and the Arab Palestinians are still tortured
by the residual shame of their flight. Their
shame is so great because in their eyes
running from Jews was like running from women.
So much for
the blatant lie about Jews throwing out all the
[Palestinian] Arabs!

The remaining 30%
either (1) saw for themselves that these Jews
would fight and die for their new nation and
decided to pack up and leave or (2) were driven
off the land as a normal consequence of war.

When the 19 month war ended, Israel survived
despite a 1% loss of its entire population! Those
Arabs who did not flee became today's Israeli-Arab
citizens. Those who fled became the seeds of the first
wave of "Palestinian Arab refugees."

The Arab
propagandists and apologists almost never mentioned
that in 1948, Arab armies launched a war against a
one-day-old Israel. Instead he focused on the main
consequence of that war: the creation of Arab
refugees, stating that Israel "war of genocide"
expelled 800,000 of them. This not only disagrees with
UN estimates of a bit over 400,000 refugees but also
ignores the fact that most of the Arabs/Palestinians
were encouraged to leave by the Arab World itself!